The U.S. swimming program as a whole - and its swimmers, including Jessica Hardy, left, and Dana Vollmer - have had plenty to cheer about in recent years. ADAM PRETTY, GETTY IMAGES

IRVINE – Litherland won the "C" group of the men's 400 individual medley.

Litherland also won the "B" group.

Then Litherland finished second in the "A" race, the real final, to Gunner Bentz, his teammate at Atlanta's Dynamo swim club.

It was a landmark for those who think all swimmers look alike. Mick, Kevin and Jay Litherland are identical triplets.

Their dad, Andy, the head chef at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Buckhead, moved the family from Miami a few years ago, and now they are rising seniors in high school.

"I struggle to tell them apart," Dynamo coach Jason Turcotte said. "The kids can do it because they know their personalities. But I would suggest all teams get a Litherland."

Before that, at the Speedo National Junior Championships, Ella Eastin of Crean Lutheran had turned the previous women's 400 IM meet record into a speed bump. Her 4:38.97 broke it by nearly 41/2 seconds.

"Last night when I couldn't sleep, I had her going 4:41," said Steve Pickell, her SOCAL club coach. "I didn't expect 4:38. If coaches knew why swimmers made leaps like that, it would happen more often."

After each A final, they lined up everyone in the race, not just the medal winners, on a descending podium. Then they would invite the coach of the winner to hand out all the medals.

There were lots of hugs on the stand, and in the seats, and even the opposing coaches seemed bonded, by the human quest to move water.

Surely swimming has its problems and dilemmas and shattered dreams and egos and jealousies. And, yes, scandals.

But a swim meet, even an Olympic swim meet, is a remarkably happy place.

And in a time when American tennis players are on the first plane home, and when American golfers can't lay a glove on the Ryder Cup, American swimmers continue to boss the world.

At last week's World Championships in Barcelona, Americans won 14 golds to China's 13, but the margin was 13-4 in non-diving events.

At last year's London Olympics, Americans won 16 of the 34 available golds, and won 20 more medals than any other nation.

More is to come.

"I can't believe the amount of really good swimmers at this meet," said Bill Rose, longtime coach of Mission Viejo's Nadadores. "There's 65-70 swimmers within tenths (of seconds) of each other. And the centers of excellence are much wider. It isn't just California and Florida."

Reasons?

The swim club system is strong. College scholarships are a mighty perk. USA Swimming is a rich resource, by all accounts. The depth and competition are unique. The sport is much more economically accessible than in most countries.

"The coaches work together," Pickell said. "Ella had the flu before the sectionals and was in the hospital on IVs. This is 21/2 weeks before the meet. I went up to Mark Schubert, who's been the Olympic coach six times, offered to buy him breakfast, asked him what he'd do. He told me, and we changed a lot of what we had planned.

"That's rare in sports. It's a nice group of people."

But on another level, swimming excellence in this country makes no sense at all.

We're told that today's kids are brain-deadened gamers who would notify Social Services if asked to mow the yard.

But here's swimming, with hours of monotonous and punishing laps, with a very high ratio of upchucking-per-workout, and with no $20 million contract hanging on the horizon.

"It flies in the face of our everyday lives," Turcotte admitted.

"It's the life lessons you learn, moving through the sport," Rose said. "You have to go over and above the obstacles."

"It's the one place where there's long-term investment," Turcotte said. "Even school isn't like that anymore. You deposit, deposit, deposit and then you get the dividends. The parents like it. They bring their kids to the pool, the kids get tired, it works."

Technically, Turcotte says the Americans have stayed ahead by reducing volume ("a lot of shoulder injuries") and stressing the "dry land" programs. More weights and flexibility training, for instance.

"We need the strength training because our sport probably gets the worst pure athletes," Turcotte said. "We have to teach them how to jump, things we took for granted. So it has made a difference."

But surely this can't be nirvana when you have swim parents involved, right?

Pickell just laughed.

"The great thing about swimming is the objectivity of the time," he said. "In other sports, it's always tough to explain why Johnny is playing instead of Stevie. In swimming, you've got it in front of you. Johnny is faster.

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